Journal of Water and Health Vol 11 No 3 pp 410–418 2013.
Development of a quaternized chitosan with enhanced antibacterial efficacy
Gurpreet Kaur Khaira, Rashmi Kumariya, Manmohan Chibber and Moushumi Ghosh. Department of Biotechnology and Environmental Sciences, Thapar University, Patiala-147004, Punjab, India E-mail: mghosh@thapar.edu
School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Thapar University, Patiala-147004, Punjab, India
The antibacterial activity of a water-soluble chitosan derivative prepared by chemical modification to quaternary ammonium compound N,N,N-trimethylchitosan (TC) was investigated against four selected waterborne pathogens: Aeromonas hydrophila ATCC 35654, Yersinia enterocolitica ATCC 9610, Listeria monocytogenes ATCC 19111 and Escherichia coli O157:H7 ATCC 32150. An inactivation of 4 log CFU/ml of all waterborne pathogens was noted for the quaternized chitosan as compared with chitosan over a short contact time (30 min) and low dosage (4.5 ppm) at ambient temperature. A marked increase in glucose level, protein content and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity was observed concurrently in the cell supernatant to be a major bactericidal mechanism. The results suggest that the TC derivative may be a promising commercial substitute for acid-soluble chitosan for rapid and effective disinfection of water.
